Jane Harman resigned from Congress February 28, 2011 to join the Woodrow Wilson Center as its first female Director, President and CEO.

Representing the aerospace center of California during nine terms in Congress, she served on all the major security committees: six years on Armed Services, eight years on Intelligence, and eight on Homeland Security. During her long public career, Harman has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues, and has received numerous awards for distinguished service.

She is a member of the Defense Policy Board, the State Department Foreign Policy Board, and the Homeland Security Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission and the Advisory Board of the Munich Security Conference.

Harman is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute and the University of Southern California. She is also a member of the Presidential Debates Commission.

A product of Los Angeles public schools, Harman is a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and Harvard Law School. Prior to serving in Congress, she was Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Deputy Cabinet Secretary to President Jimmy Carter, Special Counsel to the Department of Defense, and in private law practice.

She has four adult children and four grandchildren.

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The Women in Public Service is excited to announce a joint event in partnership with Barnard College entitled, “A Global Conversation: Why the UN Must Focus on Women’s Leadership.”
As the United Nations convenes its 68th General Assembly to tackle some of humanity’s most intractable problems, please join us for an exploration of key issues facing women today. Barnard College President Debora Spar, the Women in Public Service Project, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars welcome a panel of UN representatives and global leaders for an evening of dialogue and discussion. more

"Security and liberty are reinforcing values: we either get more of both, or less of both. Done right, government policies and laws that make the nation more secure – like those authorizing electronic surveillance – should not undermine our constitutional rights," writes Jane Harman in The New Republic. more

The Honorable Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, delved into both the economic and security challenges facing the country a year into the Federal Government’s tenure. more

Fifteen students from the China Women’s University visited the Wilson Center where they discussed their action plans and reflected on the transformative impact of the Women in Public Service Institute on their university. more

“I think urging the U.N. immediately to investigate this is right action number one and then, two, mobilizing the entire world community. If there was a massive use of chemical weapons, that should be a rallying cry for the world to get involved,” said Jane Harman on Andrea Mitchell Reports.
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The Honorable Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina Faso, will give an in-depth look at the current security situation on the continent and will discuss the future challenges to peace in West Africa. more

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" 'War on terror' was always a misnomer. Terror is not our enemy; it’s a tactic. Unfortunately, by framing our actions in a linguistically sloppy way, we’ve hurt our narrative with several important groups," writes Jane Harman.

"It's hard to see how the United States can pursue much longer an Iraq-only response to the increasingly regional threat of ISIL. That's exactly why Congressional action is essential: not to endorse mission creep, but to limit it," writes Jane Harman.

Was the sudden rise of the Islamic State insurgents, to use a loaded term, an “intelligence failure?” No, it wasn't writes Jane Harman. But no quantity of intelligence can fill the vacuum of a missing strategy.

Women's involvement in terror is real and growing. What drives women to give their lives for violent movements that insist on their inferiority? Jane Harman writes about this growing trend and what to do to stop it.

Since 9/11 Americans have had to reexamine their tolerance for intelligence gathering as it relates to national security, particularly in the wake of revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The evolving relationship between security and liberty is explored by a panel of experts in this edition of REWIND.

Director Jane Harman discusses the escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians and the immigration crisis on CBS News' Talk of the Nation with Gerald Seib, Danielle Pletka, and Nia-Malika Henderson.

"The goal [of U.S. Middle East policy] is a strategy shaped together with the Middle Eastern world: leaders and peoples alike, borrowing the best impulses of the bottom-up Arab Spring and the traditionally top-down U.S. approach to engagement. Our promise to the Middle East must be one in which collaboration helps the people of the region achieve shared values by a route of their own choice," writes Jane Harman in The Washington Post.

Please join us on June 10 to celebrate the launch of the new Hyundai Motor–Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy. Made possible with the generous support of the Hyundai Motor Company and the Korea Foundation, the program will expand the Wilson Center's unique strengths and rich legacy of substantive and diverse programming on Korea.

The formation of the new Netanyahu Government raises a great many questions about its policies and prospects. In this podcast conversation, two veteran analysts and scholars of Israeli politics and diplomacy assess and discuss.

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A panel of experts, including R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of Drug Control Policy at the White House, discusses reforming current policies combating illegal drugs in the United States and Latin America.